Bob Dylan - Fallen Angels

by Anthony Strutt

published: 3 / 7 / 2016

Label: Columbia
Format: CD

intro

Fabulous thirty-seventh album from Bob Dylan, which is his second album in succession to cover songs from the 1940s and 1950s originally recorded by Frank Sinatra

Bob Dylan, has in his time, released thirty-six previous studio albums, eleven live albums, and twelve full sets of archive bootleg material. His most recent collector's version featured eighteen discs of unreleased material, which cost £600 and and sold out instantly. He is a very acquired taste, hated as much as loved, aned was originally part of the underground Greenwich Village folk scene, before downing his acoustic to go electric and start a new phrase of his career. 'Fallen Angels' is his thirty-seventh album in a studio career that started in 1962 (which was the same year that I was born. On the day I came into the world, he was playing to a handful of people on the 2nd July at the Finjan Club in Montreal in Canada). 'Fallen Angels' continues the same theme started on his last album, 'Shadows in the Night', in that it contains a set of covers of traditional pop songs recorded largely by Frank Sinatra in the 1940s and 1950s. On this album, he doesn't play guitar at all, and hardcore fans claim this features his best ever vocal work. 'Young at Heart' opens the album. Mellow and charming, it will definitely appeal to the older fan base. 'Maybe You'll Be There' is very romantic, a song to hold hands and dream too, while 'Polka Dots and Moonbeams' is mostly an instrumental. When Bob joins the party, it brings in extra joy. 'All the Way' is strongly delivered and reveals once again what a true romantic Dylan is his own laidback, carefree manner, 'Skylark' is another classic and has an added country twang. A big band number, it is backed by almost slowcore playing from his band. 'All or Nothing At All' is waltz-fashioned and crawls along like the best of Lennie Cohen. 'On a Little Street in Singapore' is a 50's-styled crooner with a calming Sunday morning pace of life. 'It Had to Be You' is a Sinatra classic, and here is given total justice. On 'Melancholy Mood' I can see Bob with a silly grin on his face singing this. Despite it title, it puts you in a mood of total joy. 'That Old Black Magic' is another track of Sinatra magic, while 'Come Rain or Shine', which closes the album is full of 40's/50s' nostalgia and, another slow waltz, is, like the rest of 'Fallen Angels', is a million miles away from 'Hey Mr Tambourine Man'. Dylan, legend, crooner, and finally a pensioner whom has finally found peace in his self.

Track Listing:-

1 Young At Heart
2 Maybe You'll Be There
3 Polka Dots And Moonbeams
4 All The Way
5 Skylark
6 Nevertheless
7 All or Nothing at All
8 It Had to be You
9 Melancholy Mood
10 That Old Black Magic
11 Come Rain or Come Shine

Band Links:-

http://bobdylan.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bobdylan
https://twitter.com/bobdylan
https://www.youtube.com/user/BobDylanVEVO
http://www.songkick.com/artists/408511-bob-dylan

Label Links:-

http://www.columbia.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/ColumbiaRecordsUK
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaUK
https://www.youtube.com/user/icolumbia

live reviews

O2, London, 25/4/2009

Ben Howarth watches Bob Dylan at his latest London date play a beautiful and against-the-odds sensitive set against the vast backdrop and surroundings of the O2 Arena

Wembley Arena, London, 15/4/2007

Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth, 28/

Brixton Carling Academy, London, 21/11/2005

Wembley Arena, London, 15/11/2003

favourite album

Slow Train Coming (2003)

"Genuinely challenging", but sometimes ignored and often misunderstood, Ben Howarth argues the case for Bob Dylan's 1979 Christian album 'Slow Train Coming' as one of the great Dylan albums

features

61 Highways Revisited: The Albums Of Bob Dylan (2018)

Bob Dylan - 61 Highways Revisited: The Albums Of Bob Dylan

In her 'Raging Pages' book column Lisa Torem finds that Chicago author Bob Shiel with is new book, '61 Highways Revisited — The Albums of Bob Dylan’, does everything Dylan by way of smart, comprehensive reviews and a double-CD of related renditions in which he strums and sings.

Chronicles : Volume One (2005)